Previously in X-Men: Charles Xavier always knew that he was different. Mostly because he was spear bald at twelve, but also because that lack of hair was caused by the power of his telepathic mutant brain. He spent many years working for the cause of mutant civil rights, creating a team of public mutants to try and show the public that mutants were just people like them. (Dressing them up in carnival costumes with special American Gladiator code-names might have been a mistake in retrospect.) Years later, the few remaining mutants have carved their own little island home and, under the leadership of Cyclops, are still fighting for a place to call their own…

STEPHEN: X-Men #1. It’s always great to be on board a comic when it debuts, full of new characters that no one has seen before, story lines that will dramatically change the way we read comics. And it’s from Marvel too!

STEPHEN: WHAT? Why the heck are we reviewing a number rebranding and making such a big deal of it, then? Oh, wait, I know. We were supposed to do a dueling review of Shadowland #1, but somebody jumped the gun.

MATTHEW: Hey, alphabetically it came first! With three jobs, I’m lucky to know what comic I’m reading, much less what order to review ’em in.

STEPHEN: It’s not big deal. I don’t mind driving three hours to the nearest comic book store to pick up a copy, really…

Anyway…you gotta love a comic book that starts with a vampire exposing himself and then exploding himself across the people hanging out at Union Square. There’s something right on the money when a comic can make suicide bombers relevant to those of us who don’t live in areas that aren’t subjected to this type of act every day. Of course the exploding vampire is only used as a way of releasing the vampire virus into the wild and affecting/infecting those around him, and as the virus spreads, the players emerge from the shadows and we begin to learn their motives.

MATTHEW: I’m mostly bothered by the air of mystery throughout the first part of the issue, given that Marvel has teased the bajeezus out of this, and pre-cursed (see what I did there?) this vampire invasion with a book called “The Death of Dracula.” This “Person of Persons Unknown” schtick seems a little precious given that even *I*, the last guy to buy an X-Men book, pretty much went in knowing what’s up.

STEPHEN: Is it just me, or do you get the feeling that while the Curse of the Mutants storyline is only contained in the X-Men book at this moment, that it will spread throughout the rest of the Marvel universe much like Marvel Zombies did when they broke away from Ultimate Fantastic Four?

MATTHEW: Dear god, I hope not. Marvel Zombies was a fascinating concept, but they went back to the well about three times too many for me. I do expect this to crossover, but I’m kind of hoping that it’s tied to books that make sense. X-Titles, maybe Wolverine calls in the The Avengers. For some reason, the Fantastic Four versus Vampires is just WRONG.

STEPHEN: You know me, I don’t read much Marvel, and I read even less X-Men. My knowledge of the characters extends from the movie to a smattering of issues from the 90s, and of course that Dark Phoenix thing, but I think just about anyone can follow this story without a problem. So in a sense this book may just be a good jumping on point for new readers who want to get into the X-verse with little difficulty. I did like the story, I think for those that follow the vampire genre, this is just another chapter in the Marvel vampire lore.

MATTHEW: That does work for me, although I’m always troubled that vampires look like goth kids or S&M bondage freaks. Where are the vampires who look like Hayley Mills or Lindsey Lohan? (Weelll, maybe that was a bad comparison.) There are really only five X-characters in this book (Wolverine, Cyclops, Angel, Pixie, Jubilee) with a smattering of Storm and a couple of incidental characters… It’s a prelude issue, but I’m not sure if this book is going to have a regular core cast, or just pick and choose mutants for the fun factor.

STEPHEN: I’m really concerned that Dracula was killed last week in The Death of Dracula #1, and I’m hoping that series and X-Men #1 are not connected in some way or I’m really going to be screwed. I did see that Blade makes an appearance in X-Men #2 that arrives next month.

MATTHEW: I hate to say it, sir, but you’re probably in for a disappointment. I haven’t read the Death issue yet, but I believe that it transitions straight into this. As far as the clarity of the story goes, this is a nice fresh start. I hate the cover that I got (The Adi Granov version, returning to the butt-ugly old-school 60’s logo) but the interior art wasn’t bad at all. What’d you think about the visuals?

STEPHEN: The art in this book is the reason I read comics. Everything and everyone is beautiful, the women are hot, and the colors pop and burst across the page to deliver art that I want to see more of. I want to see more of this art team, and if they are only exclusive it Marvel, I may be reading more books from the company.

MATTHEW: Paco Medina does excellent work. I remember him from Suicide Squad (V.2) and I believe he was behind New X-Men Academy not so long ago. I had some issues with anatomy throughout the issue (in the same way that Humberto Ramos occasionally gives me cognitive dissonance) but was impressed by the splash of Wolverine decapitating the trampire. Now that you’re hooked, though, you’ll want more X-Men and more X-Men, and soon enough, we’ll have you wondering what happened to Senyaka…

STEPHEN: So in a sense, the X-Men have their fangs in me now?

*crickets*

My biggest disappointment with this issue was that I paid $3.99 for the book, and thought I was getting a great deal from the sheer number of pages I was getting. The disappointment became really apparent when I found that the Curse of the Mutants story only went through half the issue, with the rest filled with adds and promotions for other X-book, and a sneak peek of Shadowland.

MATTHEW: Honestly, that’s less a complaint about X-Men #1 than it is about Marvel policy in general. Joe Quesada is on record as saying that $3.99 books come out because they want to test what the market will bear. I’m cutting back on my pull list, especially on the $4 portion of my pull list, but either way, I’m figgering $3.50 and up is the new 12 cents.

STEPHEN: Bottom line – I say pick it up. It’s vampire fun mashed up with mutants and if it is everything we’ve been lead to believe – the Marvel Universe will never be the same – AGAIN! I love the art, the set up was fine, it’s progressing like any zombie story should, I’m giving it 4.5 out of 5 Stars.

Rating:

MATTHEW: Even though I wouldn’t rate it nearly that high, I actually agree with your sentiments… The last time Marvel launched X-Men, it quickly devolved into an incoherent mishmash drawn by guys who slavishly knocked off the superstar artist that launched it, and became retcon-central. This is a much more modest and writer-friendly issue, and as X-books go, it’s relatively free of entanglements and prerequisites and pleasant enough. While I’m not clamoring to find out how it ends, I was at least intrigued throughout the issue and wasn’t overtly annoyed by anything much. It’s a strong start, and worth 3 out of 5 stars overall for me.

The Author

Robot Overlord

Warning: Pregnant women, the elderly, and children under 10 should avoid prolonged exposure to the Robot Overlord. Robot Overlord may suddenly accelerate to dangerous speeds. The Robot Overlord contains a liquid core, which if exposed due to rupture, should not be touched, inhaled, or looked at. If Robot Overlord begins to smoke, get away immediately. Seek shelter and cover head. Do not taunt the Robot Overlord.

7 Comments

“Where are the vampires who look like Hayley Mills or Lindsey Lohan?” They’re in iZombie from Vertigo.

Okay suckers, you’ve taken your best shot; now it’s my turn. But seriously, I’ve been burned by X-Men so many times, I don’t think I can bear to pick up a single issue. I can handle the X-Titles, but only in well reviewed omnibi. I always fall into the trap of “wait, since when is Charles Xavier (insert; dead/alive/crippled/not crippled/a giant swinging dick to rival Hal Jordan)?” I never seem to know what’s going on. You say that’s not a problem here, and it is a nice juicy #1 issue, but its being led into by another issue, and it’s got a bazillion tie-ins, and for a relaunch which should focus on the core of the idea of X-Men, it’s relaunching right into a gimmicked storyline. I might pick it up in trade, but other than that, the X-Universe has burned me too many times.

To be perfectly honest, X-Men is part of the reason I really enjoy the digital medium. With the billions of X-Men titles out there, it’s difficult to really invest (both emotionally and financially) in their stories. (The digital world is awesome for the X-Men. That way, when I’m fed up I can press delete and move on (or archive the books) far more easily than dealing with hundreds of individual issues and trades.) Even attempting to stick to one or two books is often thwarted by a brand-wide “event” that promises to (yet again) be a game changer.

X-Men has become the Passions of the Marvel Team book catalogue with constant revisions and retconning (not to mention the myriad of dangling plot lines that are ignored by new writers that that understandably favour certain mutants over others). Even with the grand culling of mutants that was The Scarlett Witch’s whisper there are simply too many for any single writer to take on (and suddenly we see WHY there are so many books) but even with many hands it seems like things still devolve to the point that major game changing events are the only way to reset the franchise.

But this reset seems more in tune with the song being sung in Twilight and Vampire Diaries fans. And that simply confirms for me that Marvel is more concerned with making as much quick cash as possible rather than earning wealth from actual sales. And you’ll never sell me on the “Marvel wants to show how a real vampire story is told” because this is happening primarily within the mutant books.

The smart thing about creating a mini-event that as you might put it, caters to the Twilight crowd, is that based on how much money those movies are making and the sheer number of Twihards (or Twitards, however you like it) out there, that they could be hoping to get more readers into comics. If even a small fraction of vampire fans pick up some X-titles they could lead into other titles and hopefully it can build up the community. Granted they could only buy Twilight related books, and/or we could be subjugated to 50 more vampire stories too, so yeah what’s worse?